Africa can never have enough champions. The continent needs genuine friends. The danger is always that Africa will become a fashion fad -- to be abandoned later like a clothing item at the end of the season.
Sadly, it does look as if some Western celebrities cherry pick the kind of African causes which have the potential to attract the cameras, lights and reporters. It invariably looks like a photo-shoot -- with the supposedly championed Africans forming merely the backdrop.
Furthermore, it does often appear that some Western stars and even politicians use Africa to boost a career on the way down, to escape problems at home or just to hog the headlines. A case in point is British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s vainglorious final tour of Africa.
Yet Africa needs supporters and friends who will stay the course, no matter the fashion. Some Western celebrities do have staggering pulling power over ordinary people and even leaders. If celebrities use such pulling power to good effect by championing African causes, they should be welcomed.
Western leaders may speak eloquently about the advantages of globalization, but the depressing reality for Africans is that the rules are stacked in favor of the West, and the continent mostly loses out. For example, one can’t argue against a celebrity campaigning with a local African community over bad environmental behavior, work conditions and pay by a giant Western conglomerate. Or for showing how often Western governments’ selfish policies, namely high trade tariffs, pressure African countries to adopt policies that go against their national interests and destabilize their internal politics, further impoverishing Africa.
The problem is not only about keeping Africa on the Western public agenda or bringing their problems to global attention, but the need to give Africa a fair deal, to rally Western public opinion to pressure their leaders to act on their promises of securing an equitable global trade, political and finance systems. Furthermore, celebrities will do a great deal if they partner with Africans on issues and solutions that Africans have identified themselves.
Perhaps, most importantly, every individual effort to champion Africa and the vulnerable in all countries, no matter how small, does count.
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